Overview

In the Spring of 2008, United Airlines customer, Dave Carroll, witnessed baggage handlers throwing his $3,500 Taylor guitar. When Carroll finally reached his destination he opened his guitar case to find the guitar had in-fact been broken. For nine months he called customer support to receive compensation for his broken instrument. Finally, when he received his final “no” he vowed to make a music video about his negative experience and post it on the web for all to see.

His “United Breaks Guitars” video was released in July 2009 and has had over 7,000,000 views on his band’s YouTube page.

Response

United Airlines took a week to react to the video and by that time it had “gone viral.” Finally, when United Airlines did call to compensate for the damages, Carroll declined because the exposure was worth more than the $1,200 it cost for him to fix the instrument.

Outcome

-United Airlines stock price plunged 10% costing shareholders $180 million.

-United Airlines neglected to respond quickly to this video and suffered the consequences
when it eventually went viral and has had over 7,000,000 views to date.

Key Takeaways

-QUICK RESPONSE IS CRUCIAL: Diffusing the situation early can keep it from getting out of control and into mainstream media.

-ADDRESS ALL AVAILABLE CHANNELS: Don’t assume that because the situation is happening due to an action on one network, that it isn’t being discussed elsewhere. It most likely is.

-CONSUMER GENERATED CONTENT: Marketers and agencies are not the only ones who can develop and execute messaging effectively with video.

Background research came from:

SEOoptimise.com and SocialMediaToday

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